


Mother's Day

by Stonyinspirationwriter



Series: The Ava Stark-Rogers Series [12]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, Cemetery, Childhood Innocence, Death, Depression, Father-Daughter Relationship, Forced Pregnancy, Loss of Parent(s), M/M, MCU compliant, Maria Stark - Freeform, Mother's Day, Mother-Son Relationship, Original Character(s), Panic Attacks, Parent Tony Stark, Piano, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Stony - Freeform, Superhusbands (Marvel), The Ava Stark-Rogers series, Tony Angst, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, ava stark-rogers - Freeform, life support, loss of mother, non-explicit spoilers, original child character - Freeform, steve makes a small appearance but they are married, tony is ava's biological parent, violent flashback
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-09
Updated: 2016-05-09
Packaged: 2018-06-07 12:00:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6803014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stonyinspirationwriter/pseuds/Stonyinspirationwriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mother's Day has never been an easy day for Tony Stark--not since the death of his mother. Tony attempts to honor his mother by showing a two year old Ava the song  the song her grandma had taught him to play on the piano.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mother's Day

**Author's Note:**

> offers a huge reveal about Ava’s mother.

Tony had the calloused hands of a mechanic, and the agile fingers of an inventor. Surprisingly, though, his fingers had taken well to the piano as a child, and after all this time his fingers retained the muscle memory of the keys needed to play his mother’s favorite piece. He knew the lyrics and softly sung them as he played, just like his mother used to:

**Try to remember the kind of September**

**When life was slow and oh, so mellow**

**Try to remember the kind of September**

**When grass was green and grain was yellow**

**Try to remember the kind of September When you were a tender and callow fellow**

His two year old daughter squeals in delight, excitedly bouncing on his lap. He stops and turns his attention to her. “You like that, Ava?”, Tony asks. Ava’s little hands slap at the keys but she doesn’t press hard enough to produce any sound. “Daddy’s mom”, Tony continues, “your Grandma–she loved this song. She taught Daddy how to play the piano.”

“P-ee…..” Ava says, struggling to pronounce the rest of the word.

“Pi-an-o”, Tony enunciates.

“Pee-en-oo”, Ava mimics.

“There we go, my little genius”, Tony cheers.“You’re getting there. We’ll work on it more later.”

“Daddy”, Ava whines, grabbing at the hand he has secured around her waist to keep her balanced.“Play! Play! Moe, Daddy, moe!”

“You want me to play more?” Tony clarifies.

“Yes!” Ava shrieks. “Play moe, Daddy!”

“Alright, alright”, Tony complies. “Gotta give the people what they want, right?”

“Wight!” Ava chirps.

Tony laughs.

**Try to remember when life was so tender**

**That no one wept except the willow.**

**Try to remember when life was so tender**

Ava watches as Tony’s fingers effortlessly glide, completely entranced by their nimble movement. She moves her cherry red lips as she attempts to mouth the words.

 

**That dreams were kept beside your pillow.**

 

_Tony’s a child again, sitting with his mother as she plays. He can clearly see her long fingers on the keys, smell her perfume, hear her voice._

 

**Try to remember when life was so tender**

 

**That love was an ember about to billow.**

 

_He’s just an innocent child. The thought of losing his mother completely incomprehensible in his developing mind._

**Try to remember, and if you remember,**

**Then follow.**

 

_Maria Stark flashes a dazzling smile, exposing perfectly white teeth between vibrantly red lips; the smile of a movie star._

_“I love you, my Anthony”, she tells him. His mother was the only person that he ever allowed to call him that. To everyone else his name was Tony. “My Anthony, she used to say. “My son. My boy.”_

 

_“Are you sure you don’t want come?” She had asked._

 

**Follow, follow, follow, follow, follow,**   
**Follow, follow, follow, follow.**

 

_“Honestly mom”, his twenty year old self had responded.“I’d rather have a root canal. I’d be bored out of my mind.”_

 

**Follow, follow, follow, follow, follow,**   
**Follow, follow, follow, follow.**

 

_She kissed his cheek. “We’ll be back on the first.” Howard held the passenger door open for her. “Call you when we arrive”, she said before the car door slammed shut. She flashed him a smile, and as the car descended down the road she waved to him._

 

_He didn’t follow._

_She never arrived._

 

 **Deep in December** – The music came to an abrupt halt.

He saw his mother dead in the passenger seat; _blank eyes, head lolled to the side, blood dripping down…_

“Daddy?” Tony’s eyes are tightly shut, his lips trembling, his breath coming out in short gasps. Two little hands touch either side of his face. He opens his eyes and Ava is inches from his face. “No be sad’, Ava is saying. “No be sad, Daddy.” She kisses his cheek.“No be sad!”

Tony wipes the fallen tears with the back of one hand, momentarily turning his eyes up towards the ceiling before refocusing on his daughter. Ava stares up at him with bewilderment. Up until now she had probably thought that crying was only reserved for children, because parent’s weren’t supposed to cry.

One of the most terrifying moments for a child is when the superhuman facade is removed and they are forced to come to terms with the realization that their parents aren’t special at all.They’re just regular human beings that cry and make mistakes, and generally disappoint. Tony took solace in the fact that Ava was still small and would soon forget this moment. He’ll hopefully have a few more years before her disillusionment, but until then he could keep pretending that he was something more than what he actually was.

“I’m okay,” Tony plasters a smile on his face. He sniffs. “Daddy’s okay.”

* * *

“Here you go.” Tony hands Ava the large bouquet of flowers she had personally picked out. “Go give it to your mommy.” The bouquet seems much larger in her little hands, especially paired with tiny legs. She carries the bouquet over to her mother’s grave.

Tony and Steve stand side by side, somberly watching as Ava places the flowers on the plaque engraved with her mother’s name. She stands there a moment, her back facing them as her little mind futilely attempts to process the situation. Even for a child genius, the concept of death is still naturally foreign to her.

How effectively can you explain to a toddler that her mother was kept on life support while pregnant, and was taken off of life support after giving birth? You can’t. He probably shouldn’t bring her there, but pictures and stories aside, this grave site is the closest Ava will ever physically be to her mother.

Then the moment passes and Ava becomes distracted by something else.

This is all Ava knows, and as of now she is unable to grieve for what she never had. One day, though, she’ll understand the magnitude of her loss, and only then will she learn to grieve for what she’ll never know. He fears that day.

Tony can’t help but wonder whether it hurts more to have known someone and have lost them, or to have lost someone without ever having known them?

Tony turns to Steve. “You okay?” This day was also hard on Steve. From the stories he and Bucky tell, Sarah Rogers was an amazing woman.

Steve nods. “I’m fine.” He turns to Tony. “How about you?”

“I’m good.” Tony claims. Steve knits his brow. He regards Tony disapprovingly. “What?”

“Ava told me you were sad, Steve explains. Said you’d been crying earlier.”

Tony snorts. He rolls his eyes. “Little parrot”, Tony mumbles to himself. He sighs. “You asked me why I got the piano…My mom loved it.There’s this song my mom used to play….it was the last thing she would ever play. Maybe I’ll eventually be able to play it for you sometime.”

* * *

 

**Deep in December, it’s nice to remember,**

**Although you know the snow will follow.**

**Deep in December, it’s nice to remember,**

**Without a hurt the heart is hollow.**

**Deep in December, it’s nice to remember,**

**The fire of September that made us mellow.**

**Deep in December, our hearts should remember**

**And follow.**


End file.
